South Bank Sky Arts Awards 2014 nominees announced

Steve Coogan and BBC Two receive double nominations

Peter Blake to design new award trophy

David Bowie, Broadchurch, and Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa are amongst The South Bank Sky Arts Awards 2014 nominees, the only awards ceremony to celebrate the UK’s towering achievements across all genres of the arts.

The awards are one of the world’s most respected arts awards, celebrating the best of British culture and achievement across visual art, theatre, opera, dance, comedy, classical music, pop, TV drama, literature and film. Melvyn Bragg will once again act as editor and master of ceremonies at the event on Tuesday 27 January at the Dorchester Hotel in London.

The shortlist for 2014 honours a wide range of phenomenal artistic achievement, and marks the fourth consecutive year the awards have been broadcast on Sky Arts 1 HD. This year sees a strong list of established artists pitted against their industry’s young talents; such as the Royal Opera House up against Welsh National Youth Opera, and the legendary David Bowie facing Disclosure and The Arctic Monkeys in the pop category.

Two nominees have received double nominations this year: Steve Coogan for the Film and Comedy awards, (Philomena and Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa respectively) and BBC Two, which leads the way with two nominations for the TV Drama award, The Fall and Top of the Lake  -alongside ITV’s critically acclaimed thriller Broadchurch.

In a strongly contested year for comedy, Sky Arts’ own satire series Psychobitches, staring Rebecca Front together with an ensemble cast of comedians portraying historical figures in therapy, competes against stand-up artist Bridget Christie and her alternative comedy A Bic for Her. Bridget’s performance received critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Soho Theatre. Steve Coogan’s film Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa completes the category and marks the third consecutive year Coogan has been nominated for the comedy award for his ubiquitous Alan Partridge character.

The nominees for the film award are a well-deserved nod to the UK film industry excellence in the genre of social-realism. Clio Barnard's supercharged tale of a teen scrap scavenger The Selfish Giant, is nominated against Steve Coogan’s Philomena, starring Judi Dench in a real-life story of a woman whose baby was sold by nuns for adoption. Le Week-End, Roger Michell's relationship drama set in Paris, staring Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan, completes the line-up.

David Bowie’s The Next Day, his 24th studio album which broke pre-sale records and saw his return to music after a 10 year hiatus, and Arctic Monkeys fifth and most successful studio album to date, AM go up against the debut studio album Settle from electronic music duo Disclosure. Settle achieved No1 in the iTunes UK album charts within 12 hours of its release and the duo credit Kate Bush, who made a rare public appearance at the South Bank Sky Arts Awards in 2012, as an influence on their work.

“Once again, the list of nominees for the South Bank Sky Arts Awards shows that the UK arts landscape is as vibrant as ever. It’s vital to honour the excellence of artists, performers, musicians and authors especially at this time, and we’re very glad that we can do this.” comments Melvyn Bragg. 

 “The nominees list is as strong, diverse and exciting as ever, and we’re honoured that we can celebrate such extraordinary, world-class talent on Sky Arts,” comments James Hunt, Director, Sky Arts.

The judges of this year’s South Bank Sky Arts Awards are: Gillian Greenwood, Producer,The South Bank Show and Writer (Panel Chair); Baz Bamigboye, Arts Entertainment Columnist, Daily Mail;  Richard Brooks, Arts Editor, The Sunday Times;  Matt Cain, Novelist and former Culture Editor, Channel 4 News; John Cassy, Director, Sky 3D; Sarah Donaldson, Arts Editor, The Observer; Manisha Ferdinand, Head of PR Sky Arts, Sky Atlantic & Sky Movies; Boyd Hilton, TV & Reviews Editor, Heat Magazine; Alex O'Connell, Arts Editor, The Times; and Archie Powell, Producer, The South Bank Show.

The 2014 South Bank Sky Arts award itself will be designed by the legendary pop artist Sir Peter Blake, who famously co-created the album sleeve for The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. 

SOUTH BANK SKY ARTS AWARDS 2014: FULL NOMINEE LIST

Classical Music

·         The Rest Is Noise, Various Artists, Southbank Centre

·         Songs from the Same Earth, Harrison Birtwistle, The Britten Festival, Aldeburgh Festival

·         Totentanz, Thomas Ades, BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall

Comedy

·         Psychobitches – Sky Arts

·         Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa – Baby Cow

·         Bridget Christie: A Bic for Her - Edinburgh Fringe Festival & Soho Theatre

Dance

·         Atamos, Wayne McGregor, Random Dance

·         Dracula, Mark Bruce

·         Le Corsaire, English National Ballet

Film

·         Le Week-End

·         The Selfish Giant

·         Philomena

Literature

·         Life After Life, Kate Atkinson

·         The Kills, Richard House

·         Marriage Material, Sathnam Sanghera

Opera

·         Written on Skin,  Royal Opera House

·         Paul Bunyan, Welsh National Youth Opera

·         Grimes on the Beach, Aldeburgh Festival

Pop Music

·         David Bowie, The Next Day

·         Arctic Monkeys, AM

·         Disclosure, Settle

Theatre

·         Othello, National Theatre

·         Let The Right One In, National Theatre of Scotland by arrangement with Marla Rubin Productions Ltd and Bill Kenwright, in association with Dundee Rep Theatre

·         Chimerica, Headlong and Almeida Theatre co-production, produced in the West End by Sonia Friedman Productions

TV Drama

·         Broadchurch, ITV

·         The Fall, BBC Two

·         Top of the Lake, BBC Two

Visual Art

·         Katie Paterson, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge and as part of Tipping Point, Wolverhampton Art Gallery

·         Michael Landy: Saints Alive, The National Gallery

·         Sarah Lucas: Situation, Whitechapel Gallery

TIMES BREAKTHROUGH AWARD NOMINEES

·         Classical: Anna Clyne

·         Comedy: Nick Helm

·         Dance: Alexander Whitley

·         Film: Jack O'Connell

·         Literature: Evie Wyld

·         Opera: Alessandro Talevi

·         Pop Music: King Krule

·         Theatre: Cush Jumbo

·         TV Drama: Zawe Ashton

·         Visual Art: Oscar Murillo

Outstanding Achievement in association with The Dorchester: To be announced on the day

For further information on the nominees, please visit www.sky.com/southbank 

-ENDS-

For further information please contact:

Dominic Collett
Sky Arts Publicist, Sky Press Office
T: 0207 032 4892

Katherine Solomon
PR Manager, Sky Press Office
T: 0207 032 0599

Notes to editor:

South Bank Show:
The South Bank Sky Arts Awards (Previously the South Bank Show Awards) are now in their 16th year and are still the only awards ceremony in the world that represent the entire spectrum of British arts, from visual arts to opera, television drama to dance, film to literature. In addition to the 10 main categories, there are also two special awards: The Times Breakthrough Award, voted for by Times readers, which recognises up and coming talent across the arts, and The Dorchester Outstanding Achievement Award which celebrates an individual's extraordinary contribution to the arts.

The awards, which are presented by Melvyn Bragg at The Dorchester, always attract an eclectic mix of people. Previous attendees include Ronnie Wood, J K Rowling, Sir Ian McKellen, Darcey Bussell, Dame Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Sir Tom Stoppard, Rachel Weisz, Russell Brand,, Damien Hirst, and Sir Richard Attenborough.

Previous winners include Arctic Monkeys, Sir Cameron Macintosh, Peter Grimes, Elbow, Sherlock and Amy Winehouse.